Tough weekend for Hamilton at Magny-Cours.

Lewis Hamilton saw his GP2 Series lead cut to 14 points following a frustrating weekend at Magny-Cours that yielded just one fifth place and three points.

With attention surrounding a possible early appearance in a McLaren-Mercedes before the end of the year, Hamilton endured a tough weekend in France, qualifying in fifth and then seeing his feature race ruined when he misjudged his braking and hit the back of Adam Carroll on the opening lap.

Coming in to replace his front-wing, Hamilton dropped to the back of the field but managed to secure a consolation point for the fastest lap on the way to an eventual 19th place. However, Hamilton admits that getting the car to the finish proved difficult.

"We improved the car from the practice session and it helped for the qualifying session. I was held up during my quickest lap though, which is too bad because we would have been second."

"In race 1 I did not get the best start, but it was not too bad either. I then made a slight mistake and hit Adam Carroll at turn 5. My front wing was broken and I had to come back to the pits to change it. At the end of the race the tyres were dead and it was not easy to keep the car on track."

Starting the second race in the position from which he finished the first event, Hamilton set about salvaging something from his weekend in the sprint race, making a superb start and finishing the first lap in 13th place.

Although he was passed by his equally charging ART Grand Prix team-mate Alex Premat, Hamilton followed the Frenchman in fighting through the field, eventually getting into fifth place and with it two points, limiting the damage done by Nelson Piquet, who secured a fourth and a second place.

"As for race two, I came a long way to get 5th place. I think this is not a bad job, but it's too bad we could not secure a win this weekend, even though Alex did a great job. So did the team."